Customer Reviews

Bonnie-Sue: Library Edition

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4 star:		(1)
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As an H-46 pilot in HMM 262, call sign "Chatter Box" in 1969 and '70 I found the book truly amazing. Sturky explains in detail stories I had only heard about. The vivid descriptions brought back forgotten memories of night medivacs, and emergency recon extracts and of the hours of boredom and moments of stark terror experienced by every combat pilot since aviation was born. He tells the true story of the Marine helo drivers, aircrews and grunts in Vietnam . A story that has been too often ignored.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in that period of Marine Corps history.

I bought this book for my Father, mainly a H-34 pilot while in Vietnam. He immediately started leafing through it and recognized a number of old and still current friends. While reading it he was impressed by how accurately Sturkey described missions that my Father was also a part of. He said that if I wanted to have any understanding of what Vietnam for him was like, that I should read it as well.

The first thing that struck me, and continued to strike me, was the casualness of how missions and battles were described. Marion describes a squadron mate's H-46 colliding with a grounded Huey in the same way that I would explain a Computer crashing while at work. It's all part of the job, and getting distracted from the task at hand could spell disaster for both the pilots and their crew. As I neared the end of the book, I noticed that even I was starting to view hot LZ's, steady ground fire, and rear wheel only landings as normal occurrences to be dealt with every day, by every pilot.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to have a glimpse at what it would be like to put your life on the line for your country, and your friends. I look at my Father, and all Veterans, in a whole new light.

The detailed history of the Marine helicopter pilot has never been written in such a hard , cold -steel factual way as this great book reveals. The author, Marion Sturkey, has produced a very exciting chronological documentary using no pseudonyms, only the true names, of pilots and aircrewmen who flew and died in I Corps. His Dedication page, to 28 Marines from HMM-265 who " made the Supreme Sacrifice in the noble cause of freedon during the course of the Vietnam War", punctuates the fact that real people fight wars, not statistics.

The Prologue very squarely sets thestage for the book by looking at a small part of the history of Vietnam which is germane to understanding a small bit of the Oriental mind as it pertains to "the war" and the "coming of the United States, as leader of the free world." The U.S. Marines arrived in 1962 to help the South Vietnamese, a country already used to warfare for at least 2000 years. How bizarre to begin the whole affair on Palm Sunday, 1962. Beginning with the very early troop deployment , Code named Operation Shu-Fly, the Marines actually started in the Mekong region with H-34,s before landing in mass at Danang on March 8, 1965. Funny how PBS documentaries seem to leave this fact out.

Following the Prologue, Marion Sturkey doesa masterful job through some 10 chapters telling the actual story of Marine Aviation starting from Marble Mountain, July 14, 1966 through The Seige at Khe Sanh. Day by day , hour by hour, you will be stunned by the details contained in Chapters titled: Mutter Ridge, The New Year, The Longest Night, The Hill Fights and They Bought the Farm. You will be held captured by stirring detail, taken from hundreds of abstracts from After-action-Reports, Aircraft Accident Reports, squadron Unit Diaries and Flight Schedules, Casualty Cards, and Command Chronologies. Bonnie-Sue.... is no "from memory" biography.

Closing out the book , the author submits a Requiem: (Webster-- A Mass for the repose of a departed soul or souls....in honor of the dead!) Punctuating the details of the pull-out, overthrow and die-down of the War ,Marion Sturkey quotes many prophetic words by people known and unknown to show just how "history" will remember the whole affair. There is no crying or remorse, only a factual hard hitting and truthful approach to reality. To quote the author, " Surviving Marine Corps helicopter pilots and aircrewmen remember the horror and hardships, the fear and fatique, the stench and carnage. Yet, they also recall the camaraderie, the love and brotherhood, the passion, the incommunicable experience of Marines at war. THEY FOUGHT AND FLEW HAND-IN-HAND WITH DEATH, BUT THEY WERE NEVER MORE ALIVE. THEIR SURVIVAL BECAME THEIR VICTORY!"

Any helicopter pilot who is serious about knowing exactly what happened will want to have and read this book. If you rely on accounts, such as the many PBS mini-series, solely for your facts, you have not heard the real truth. To help quickly find facts and names, "Bonnie Sue.." contains a complete Master Index with 419 names(real people) and a Bibliography of 169 listings. If the author Marion F. Sturkey didn't apply for and receive a PhD for his fine research and writing, he should have. As far as receiving one from the School of Hard Knocks, I would give him a PhD, for sure. Read it and you will no doubt agree. And, in this case, PhD actually stands for "Plenty of Heroic Detail"!

Tom Payne
Bandit32
118th AHC
66-67 END

I flew in a sister squadron at the same time as Marion Sturkey. In every chapter and every paragraph he tells it the way it really transpired. If you every wanted to know about Marine helicopters in Vietnam and the men flying them, this is a must read. First an excellent pilot, then a highly decorated Marine and finally, a damn good author.

The pilots and crew members who flew under the call sign "Bonnie Sue" personify the unselfish duty and love of country expected of the baby boom generation. This book is testimony that when our genetation was asked to step up we reacted with the zeal and committment quietly taught to us through living examples of the veterans of WWII who were our fahers, coaches and community leaders. When I flew the same area three years after the time period mentioned in the book, I was humbled when flying over the helipcopter crash sites that I now know where those of the "Bonnie Sue" squadron. The book also alludes to the fact that once these warriors returned home, they went on to be fathers, coaches and the quiet role models that were also expected of them. Bonnie-Sue is an accurate tribute to those who faught and died in the belief that they were fighting for an honorable cause.

My fiancee made me read this book - he was in HMM-265. I needed a "military dictionary" to understand some of the terms, but it was an education and a treat. Ted loved it, I appreciated the honest and graphic attention given to details. Thank you Marion Starkey for not candy coating history.

Janet E. Morann Ted Violissi HMM-265 USMC

The author places the reader in the cockpit with the pilot during dangerous, hair raising, poignant and life threatening combat situations. It is remarkable what a Marine Helo pilot will do to rescue wounded fellow Marines. The Vietnam war takes on a very personal perspective herein.

As a former Marine sniper who was there when the events written in this book took place I found it fascinating to hear a chopper pilots view of the same events I lived through. It details what happened, why in many cases like Helicopter Valley, and what was going on for the guys in the sky. These guys were our lifeline and we loved them and this book details the sacrifices they made on our behalf. It is pretty long but well worth it if you are interested in understanding the war.

My father was a H-46 helicopter pilot in Vietnam, and after seeing this book in his bookshelf I had to read it. It is a very clear and uniform account of what helicopter pilots in Vietnam experienced. There are gripping stories of courage and carnage, and several scenes that stand out in my mind as testimony to the bravery, comraderie, and absolute horror that so many men have experienced in times of war. I loved the quotations throughout the book from all periods of history, but which really never grow old. This book helped give me some understanding of a time that has been confusing to me, (and I'm sure many others) and it adds the perspective of the people actually participating in the struggle.
"The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here."

Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg, 1863

I was stationed at Marble Mountain with VMO-2. I have very clear memories of the crews and their focused professionalism. Bonnie Sue is an exceptional work and should be required reading for every aviation Marine. Hats off to the 46ers wherever they may be.

Jess Rasmussen